1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to the field of document tracking. More particularly, the invention pertains to a system and a method for organizing and managing observational information items relating to construction defect litigation.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Litigation is a very complex process that usually includes the management of numerous documents and complex and voluminous data. To assist managing these large numbers of documents and complex and voluminous data, various general litigation support systems have been developed. These general litigation support systems usually operate by providing and recording a unique identifier for each document in a lawsuit. Most of these documents have been optically scanned into the computer as bit-mapped images, which rely upon computer software to automatically correlate and track these documents. Although these general litigation support systems provide limited document tracking capability, they fail to adequately meet the needs of litigation support personnel in handling specialized types of litigation.
In particular, the success of these litigation support systems in managing information relating to construction defect litigation and other types of claims has been limited. In construction defect litigation, for example, each litigant participating in a lawsuit sends a number of inspectors representing various specialties to a building site having alleged construction defects. Each of these inspectors then prepares various reports that describe their findings regarding the defects. In support of these reports, the inspector typically gathers data, prepares photographs, makes sketches, tests, performs and makes other observational notes and comments regarding each of the potential defects or observation notes.
However, current litigation support systems are not designed to manage litigation documents in construction litigation and do not provide for the cross referencing of data and documents. During and in preparation of construction defect litigation, litigation support personnel need to know the defects that have been identified, the location of the defect, the type of defect, a picture or sketch of the defect, the positioning of an inspector relative to the structure of the building when the inspector photographed the defect, and access to floor plan which can cross-correlate the defects with inspector's noted observational information.
Another problem associated with current litigation systems is that they do not allow the on-line retrieval and display of graphical documents including pictures, sketches and charts. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,159,180 to Feiler describes a typical general litigation support system. Feiler describes a bibliographic system that uses bar code numbers to cross-correlate and index information. Using the Feiler system, a user can only obtain bibliographic information, and it is not possible to obtain on-line access to the litigation documents. Thus, if a document was identified in the Feiler system, the user could not display the document. The user would have to go to a filing cabinet or other document storage device to actually see the information that is contained in the identified document.
Further, general litigation support systems, such as is described by Feiler do not describe how to manage and cross-correlate the observational information of inspectors. In construction litigation, each item of observational information is cross-referenced with a plan of the building. Feiler and other general litigation support systems do not teach how to manage these types of documents in a computerized environment.
In addition, these general litigation support systems do not provide for the management of accounting information relating to the construction litigation. In construction litigation, there is a need to assign responsibility to a specific subcontractor for the correction of a defect. This assignment process is complicated by the fact that various contractors may have worked on a building complex, such as found in condominiums, during a selected phase of its construction. However, the general litigation support systems, such as are described by Feiler, cannot assign responsibility for the costs of fixing the construction defects that were noted by the inspectors.
Therefore, there is a need for a management system that provides for the management of documents related to construction litigation. The management system should display the full text of the managed litigation documents. Also, the management system should support the cross-correlation of observational information with a building plan. Additionally, the management system should allow for the assignment of responsibility for defects that are identified at a particular building site to one or more subcontractors depending on which phase of the construction that the subcontractor was a participant.